San Francisco public radio station KALW(FM), “the oldest noncommercial FM signal west of the Mississippi,” noted the recent passing of Stefan Kudelski. See it here.

Kudelski would be better known had he attached his name to his invention rather than using a word from his native Polish.

A World War II refugee as a child, Kudelski and his family resettled in Switzerland. When he grew up he began tinkering and built a tape recorder at a time when recording tape was new and unusual. A few years later he miniaturized the recorder to where it could actually be carried around and used on location. Thus the iconic Nagra portable reel-to-reel tape recorder was born.

Though it became a tool of movie-making, Kudelski’s first customers were radio stations. Academy and Emmy awards were among many recognitions of the influence and importance of his tough, reliable little silver boxes.

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